Improved method of setting tubes for condensers



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. RI r,... ,lnuuI'A UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED METHOD OF SETTINGI TUBES FOR CONDENSERS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,950, dated December 1'7, 1861.

T0 all whom t may concern:

Beit known that LWILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and Improved Method of Setting Tubes in Tubular Condensers, Heaters, and Refrigerators; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, in Which- Figure 1 is a sectional broken view of a head-sheet, taken through the center of the aperture to receive the tube. Fig. 2 is a Similar Yview showing the tube put in place to be set Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the packing placed over the tube and in the aperture. Fig. 4t is a similar view showing the packing swaged down to place to secure and set the tube. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the packing.

It is requisite. in tubular condensers for condensing the steam exhausted from steamengines that provision should be made in setting the tubes in their tube-sheets for the movement of them due to their expansion and contraction,whieh is produced by the intermission of the exhaust, which occurs twice to each stroke of the engine, and which therefore produces two expansions and contractions of the tubes at each of said strokes, the tubes being expanded by the transmission to them of the caloric of the steam brought in contact with them. and contracted (after the steam is condensed) by that caloric being abstracted from them by the current of cooling-water passing through or around them, as the case maybe. If the tubes are secured firmly at both ends in their head-sheets (after the manner of setting boiler-tubes) their expansion and contraction either causes them to leak in their setting or to bend and break, in either event rendering them valueless to effect the object for which they are designed. They are now secured at one end firmly in the head-sheet, and the other is allowed to move in a packing formed of india-rubber or other material,which keeps them tight,while it allows them to move freely as they are expanded and contracted. This device is subject to the objections of its first cost and of its liability to have the packing wear away,

so as to render the tubes leaky at their packed end, and therefore to impair the operation of the condenser.

My invention is intended to effect the objects sought to be eifected by the packing above named without being subject to its disadvantages; and it consists in forming a packing around the unfastened ends of the tubes of rings made of lead or other soft metal, which is secured in place, as hereinafter described, and which packs the end of the tubes perfectly tight at the same time that it allows the proper movement of the tubes due to their expansion and contraction, and yet is inexpensive in first cost and possesses great durability.

A is a broken section of a head-sheet made of cast-iron or other cast metal under my patent of June 11, 1861, the apertures B for the reception of the tubes being enlarged at their outer end for about two-thirds of their depth to form a space to receive the packingring C, hereinafter described. The enlarged portion of the aperture is made slightly larger in diameter-say one thirty-second of an inch-at the bottom than at the top, so as hold the packing-ring C securely in place. The packing-ring O is made of lead or other soft metal, of an interior diameter equal to that of the exterior diameter of the tube D, of an exterior diameter equal to that of the outer end of the aperture B, so as to ll the space between the tube and the aperture, as shown in Fig. 3, and a length enough greater than the dep;h of the enlarged portion of the aperture B to allow it to be set down by a proper tool, so as to be swaged out to fill up the whole of the space between the tube and the aperture and to be pressed tightly against the exterior of the tube, as shown in Fig. 4:, so that it cannot move from its position when the end of the tube is moved by the expansion and contraction before described, while it allows the tube to move freely within it and yet be preserved tight. I iind that lead pipe of proper size, made of soft lead and drawn of equal thickness and cut to proper length, answers an excellent purpose in the manufacture of these packing-rings, not only on account of the readiness with which it can be obtained and iitted, but also for its This packing-ring when rmly cheapness.

secured, as shown and described, preserves the end of the tubes perfectly tight in the head-sheets, (so far as regards leakage around and past the end of the tubes,) and yet allows them to move to the extent required by this expansion and contraction, as before stated.

It will be apparent to practical men that my improvement is equally applicable to securing the tubes of condensers to be employed for condensing the steam evaporated from salt water to be made into distilled. Water for portable purposes and of those of tubular heaters for heating cold water and 

